Charlise Mutten’s murder trial against accused killer Justin Stein was suspended over the long weekend after they failed to reach a verdict on Friday.
The jury retired for the first time Thursday to decide whether Stein murdered 9-year-old schoolgirl Charlise Mutten by shooting her in the face, but has yet to reach a verdict.
But at 1pm on Friday, Judge Helen Wilson sent the jury home after they requested access to a transcript of evidence presented by the defendant’s mother, Annemie Stein.
Jurors, who have been deliberating for about five hours, previously requested transcripts of testimony from both Mr. Stein and Charlise’s mother, Kallista Mutten.
Judge Wilson wished the panel members a good weekend and said she would see them again in court next Tuesday.
In closing submissions Thursday, jurors were told the issue in the case is not how the schoolgirl died, but who pulled the trigger.
Justin Stein claimed that Charlise’s mother, Kallista Mutten, shot and killed her own daughter around 9 pm on January 12, 2022.
The prosecution insisted that Stein was the last person to see Charlise and had the opportunity to kill her between 7:16 p.m. on January 11 and 10:06 a.m. on January 12.
Charlise’s body was found near the Colo River, northwest of Sydney, on January 18, 2022 with gunshot wounds to the lower back and a fatal gunshot wound to the face.
Stein, 33, has pleaded not guilty to Charlise’s murder and claimed he heard Mutten shoot his daughter, who screamed his name and then “mom, no” before falling to the ground on the Stein family property, Wildenstein, in NSW Blue. Mountains.
Judge Helen Wilson concluded her directions and summary of evidence in the trial before the New South Wales Supreme Court around lunchtime on Thursday.
Justin Stein has been on trial for a month accused of murdering nine-year-old Charlise Mutten
Charlise Mutten was shot and killed while on vacation with her mother Kallista Mutten (above), who was then engaged to the defendant, Justin Stein.
Stein admitted dumping Charlise’s body but said Mutten shot his daughter and placed her body in a barrel in the back of his ute without her knowledge.
Mrs Mutten denied having any involvement in her daughter’s death and broke down in tears when she faced the prosecution in court.
Many of the facts of the case were not in dispute, including the fact that Charlise died from gunshot wounds she suffered on or near a Mount Wilson estate owned by Stein’s mother, the jury heard.
“The issue is not how Charlise died, but who pulled the trigger,” Judge Wilson said.
The judge told the jury that if they found there was a reasonable possibility that Mutten shot his own daughter, they should find Stein not guilty.
Charlise Mutten, 9, died from a gunshot wound to the face fired at point-blank range in January 2022, after which her body was dumped in a barrel on the bank of a river.
“The Crown has no evidence that anyone saw the defendant shooting Charlise,” he said.
Stein appeared as the defense’s only witness at the trial and spent two days going over his version of events earlier in the week.
At the time of her death, Charlise had been visiting her mother and Stein from Queensland, where she lived with her grandparents.
Charlise stayed at Stein’s mother’s house in Sydney, then with Ms Mutten and Stein, who were engaged at the time, with the girl calling the accused “dad”.
They split their time between Wildenstein and a cabin at Riviera Ski Gardens in Lower Portland, the trial was told.
Charlise spent the night of January 11 alone with Stein at Mount Wilson, while her mother remained at the cabin, which is when prosecutors argued he killed her.
Crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC said it was open to the jury to find that Stein had drugged and shot Charlise dead.
The schoolgirl, who lived with her grandparents in Coolangatta, had flown south to spend time with her mother and ‘stepfather’, Justin Stein, when the tragedy occurred.
An autopsy found that Charlise had traces in her body of quetiapine, the ingredient in the antipsychotic drug Seroquel, which Stein took for her schizophrenia.
The jury heard that an adult dose of the drug would have a profound sedative effect on a child, but that it was difficult to know how much had been given to Charlise.
McKay said one possible motive was that Stein killed Charlise when she became ill after he gave her the drug.
Stein denied giving the medication to Charlise and instead claimed that Ms. Mutten shot her on the night of January 12.
He said he had followed a plan to cover up the murder, including lying to police about leaving the girl in the care of an imaginary woman who was appraising items at the Mount Wilson property.
Stein claimed he didn’t know Charlise’s body was in a barrel in the back of his ute until the next day and that he panicked and eventually disposed of her remains when he found out.
